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Review - Doctor Who: Deep Breath

New instalments of Doctor Who seem to be turning into events of national importance. First we had the 50th anniversary special, The Time of the Doctor, released in cinemas to great acclaim, and now Deep Breath, the feature length debut of Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor, gets the theatrical treatment too. Frankly, it's going to seem odd watching the show on regular television again next week.

It's understandable why so much pomp and ceremony surrounds this particular reincarnation of the beloved time traveller though. Not only is Capaldi arguably the most prestigious and established actor ever to take the role, but the circumstances surrounding the character's latest regeneration mean that this isn't merely the latest face to head the show. With the Doctor having gained an entirely new cycle of regenerations in The Time of the Doctor, this is the dawning of a new era for the franchise.

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But does Deep Breath live up to its potential?

Honestly, it's a mixed bag, but the episode proves to have more good than bad. Those watching in cinemas were treated to a short lead in, with Sontaran soldier-turned-butler Strax (Dan Starkey) recounting the Doctor's prior incarnations before being summoned by Silurian detective Madame Vastra (Neve McIntosh) and her wife Jenny (Catlin Stewart) to investigate something running amok in the Thames. It's a nice intro, filled with light-hearted jokes at the expense of the previous actors to play the Doctor.

It neatly ties in with the opening of the episode proper, with a Tyrannosaurus rampaging through Victorian London. For the first five minutes or so, it feels as though we're watching the

'Madame Vastra Investigates' spin-off that the BBC so desperately needs to make, until the dino spits up a familiar blue police box. Our first shot of Capaldi as the Doctor isn't one of strength or imposing presence, but comedy, with some rapid-fire open/closed TARDIS door arguing between him and Strax, investigating its appearance. It's one of many laugh out loud moments that pepper showrunner Steven Moffat's script for the episode, which continues with the seductive chatter between the Doctor and the T-rex (because of course the Doctor speaks dinosaur), and the banter that results from the restructured relationship with companion Clara (Jenna Coleman). A later scene with the Doctor and a tramp, played by the late Elisabeth Sladen's husband Brian Miller, stands out as the comedy highlight of the episode, largely thanks to Capaldi's self-aware commentary on his furious eyebrows.

Coleman has more to work with here than we've seen since her character's introduction as the mysterious Impossible Girl, appearing in numerous times and places during Matt Smith's run as the Doctor. The biggest change in her personality is that she seems more vulnerable, shocked by the change her best friend has undergone and worrying whether part of that friendship was based on attraction in the first place -- an attraction she no longer feels.

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It's a nuanced layer of characterisation for Coleman to tap into, while retaining the familiar bossy, upbeat Clara from the last season.

Ultimately, a dinosaur in old-time London is a distraction -- the real threat of the episode is the Half-Face Man (Peter Ferdinando in a brilliantly inhuman performance), an ancient robot whose crew has been time-lost under the city for millions of years, slowly rebuilding their clockwork bodies with parts culled from unwilling organic donors and hiding their murders by making the victims spontaneously combust. It's a sharp idea, and a chilling inversion of the basic concept of the Cybermen (robots turning themselves human, rather than humans being turned into Cybermen). Moffat also neatly ties this crew of robots in with those seen in The Girl in the Fireplace, and gives them a disturbingly theological goal -- to find their "promised land". They're also fantastically grisly new monsters for Who lore, with exposed gears whirring away and mismatched flesh parts badly joined together.

However, it's during the investigation of these organ-farming cyborgs that Deep Breath's flaws begin to show. Some sloppy editing (the Doctor diving off a bridge, then cutting to a scene days later with Clara working with Vastra et al, is especially jarring) and failed attempts at scares really hurt the episode. After the Doctor and Clara reunite in a fake restaurant populated by the robots, the horror gimmick is introduced -- don't breathe, or they'll know you're human. It would work very well, if it weren't a redux of not blinking when around the Weeping Angels, another Moffat creation. Director Ben Wheatley even repeats some of the visual tricks, with the villains moving closer between breaths.

The biggest problem with Deep Breath is that, despite having a movie's worth of time to introduce the new Doctor and establish a new status quo, we still have no real feel for Capaldi in the role by the end. Altogether too much time is spent on having the newly regenerated Time Lord stumbling around in a daze, rambling to himself and struggling to regain his sanity. While that's great for serving up laughs, it's a problem when trying to establish the lead for a new era of Who. Yes, the Doctor frequently struggles post-regen but in this case, it goes on far too long.

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If anything, Moffat and co. seem more interested in reminding the audience that it doesn't matter that this Doctor is older, than they are in allowing Capaldi room to put his stamp on the character. Part of this plays into Clara's character arc, but mostly it serves as fodder to bring up Capaldi's age repeatedly.

The reminders that he's still intrinsically The Doctor despite the lines on his face and the grey hair become heavy-handed, up to and including a cameo from the departed Matt Smith to reassure Clara -- and the audience -- that it's OK to like the new guy. To be fair, that cameo is a sheer delight and a brilliantly well-kept secret on the part of all involved, but really feels as though the producers are desperately covering themselves.

You can perhaps understand the showrunners' caution on the age front -- Christopher Eccleston was 41 when he relaunched the show as the Ninth Doctor, but after having David Tennant (34 when he took the role) and Matt Smith (a spritely 27) become sex symbols, returning to an older Doctor is something of a risk. Whether the fanbase will accept Capaldi in the role will be determined over the course of the season, but it's a real shame we don't have a firmer impression of him by the end of his premiere.

What is clear about Doctor number twelve is that he has a darker edge. As well as the mystery of whether he himself dispatches the Half-Face Man or it committed robo-suicide, there's a troubling moment where he abandons Clara. Again, poor editing comes into play, with the resolution unclear as to whether it was part of a plan to reveal the villain's plot, or just to show the Doctor coming around and showing empathy again. Whatever the intent, it falls through. As a result, the relationship between Doctor and Companion is fundamentally changed by episode's end. Despite Clara eventually realising it is the same man she grew to care for, there's an air of friction, of tension, that lingers. A very different chemistry will flavour the show going forward.

With Moffat being enamoured with the long-form storyarc, it's little surprise that Deep Breath also seeds the season to come. The appearance of Michelle Gomez as the peculiar Missy, who is seen in an epilogue to have somehow captured the Half-Face Man and alludes to plans for the Doctor, sets up the greater threat of the season. Her true identity is likely to be someone key to the franchise's history -- our money's on either The Rani, a new version of Romana, or a gender-swapped Master (Missy =

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Mistress, perhaps?). Unfortunately, Moffat does have her being a bit lovey-dovey towards the Doctor -- having her be any kind of jilted ex would be a disappointing outcome.

What's more intriguing is the hint that someone has been engineering Clara's meetings with the Doctor all along. When the pair realise that neither of them left a clue in the newspaper to lead them to the aforementioned restaurant, it ties back into "a woman" giving Clara the Doctor's phone number way back in The Bells of Saint John, the episode that saw Clara officially join enter the TARDIS. Whether that woman and Missy are one and the same remains to be seen, but it's a cracking pair of mysteries to kick off the new season. A last-minute solo jaunt through time on the Doctor's part, before he fully 'stabilises' and returns for Clara, also leaves a nice window for future storyline exploration.

Hopefully, with the show returning to regular length and regular broadcast methods next week, Capaldi will really make his mark as The Doctor. Deep Breath shows promise for the new status quo, but could have benefitted from better editing and a less repetitive hook for otherwise compelling new enemies. It definitely feels like a refreshed series, and one with drive thanks to the Doctor's newly-stated intention to make up for past mistakes. A more proactive Doctor could be fantastic, and if both that and the long game involving Missy pay off, season eight could be a high point for the series